


Fireside Talks

by Vibranch



Category: Final Fantasy VIII
Genre: Canon Compliant, Developing Friendships, F/M, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Missing Scene, Pre-Relationship, in-game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2020-06-18
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:34:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24779203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vibranch/pseuds/Vibranch
Summary: A momentary chat between Squall and Rinoa the night before the party arrives at in Deling City.
Relationships: Rinoa Heartilly & Squall Leonhart, Rinoa Heartilly/Squall Leonhart
Kudos: 14





	Fireside Talks

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place at an agreed upon spot to make camp after Irvine has joined up with the party, but before they've finished walking from Galbadia Garden to the Train Station that will take them to Deling City.

Squall stared deep into the orange glow of the campfire in front of him. From the log he used as a makeshift bench, he sat quietly, teetering on the precipice of two worlds. His back faced towards the cold and the dark surrounding him as the fire crackled and burned ever hotter in front of him.

The heat against his face had risen to a point that was no longer comfortable, but Squall didn’t move. In fact, he wished he could make this moment stretch on forever. Everything felt so calm and quiet. The daylight promised uncertainty, but the warmth of the fire, however uncomfortable it might be, was bearable and secure.

Tomorrow, he, along with everyone else, would arrive at Deling City. And despite Quistis joining them, Squall was still the designated Squad Leader. Who knew if he could manage to lead this small squad to success, Squall certainly didn’t. So, he continued to stare into the flames, trying to eke out as much security as he could from the fire while it still burned, and delay the uncertainty of the oncoming morning.

So fixated was he on the hypnotic dance of the flames, that he didn’t even notice Rinoa exiting her tent and approaching him until her body stood between him and the fire.

Slowly, he lifted his head to meet her eyes. The heat of the flames no longer able to be felt with her standing there.

“What do you call this thing again?” Rinoa asked. She tapped the side of her foot against the silver case on the ground by Squall. “A pistol sword or something, right?”

Squall’s eyebrows knitted together as he processed her words. “A pistol…?” Realization struck him as his eyes trailed over to case she’d tapped. His Gunblade case. “Oh, that. It’s a Revolver model Gunblade,” Squall said in the uninterested fashion Rinoa had grown used to hearing from him.

“Right, right. Gunblade, got it.” Rinoa sat down beside Squall and nudged him with her shoulder. “Hey, can I see it?”

“What? Why?”

“Why not? I’ve never really seen one like it before. Seifer would show his off whenever he got the chance, but yours is different. I’m just curious about it, that’s all.”

For the first time since the dance they shared and their reunion on the train, Squall gave her a look that wasn’t frustration or irritation. It was still a subtle guarded expression, but if Rinoa had to place money on it, she’d have guessed that he was excited at the prospect of going into detail about the weapon he specialized in.

A moment of thought passed for Squall. Letting out a sigh, he hunched over and was back to starring at the fire. “You’re probably just bored. Go talk to Selphie or the new guy, Irvine, if you’re just trying to stave off some boredom before sleeping.”

Rinoa rolled her eyes, “Okay, you got me. I’m bored, but I really am interested.” She placed one hand to her heart and the other in the air. “I swear on pain of a thousand Sorceresses’s wrath that I genuinely am interested in talking about your Gunblade.”

Rinoa lowered her hands and smiled at Squall. He still seemed unconvinced. “C’mon, you and Seifer are the only people I know who actually use a Gunblade. The only other person I can think of who’s used one is some Knight in an old historical drama movie. You’re like one-in-a-million!”

Something in that last statement must’ve perked him up, as Squall couldn’t prevent the crack of a smile from appearing. He quickly regained himself, hiding the smile Rinoa had already caught by covering his mouth and pretending to rub his upper lip.

“Seifer uses a Hyperion model. It’s pretty different to the Revolver.” Squall leaned down, the sound of the latches that locked the Gunblade case closed clicked open. He lifted the weapon up, the flat of the blade resting on one hand and the handle in his other. “The Hyperion is lighter and has a pistol grip, which makes it a bit more maneuverable. But that can also make it a lot easier to knock aside too.”

Rinoa nodded along, as her eyes traced the silver blade reflecting in the warm glow of the fire. “Yeah, I noticed you hold yours with both hands, while Seifer only needed one whenever he showed it to me.”

“Yeah, mine is quite a bit heavier. But I figure if I use my Guardian Force to increase my strength, then there’s nothing to worry about.”

“Okay, but how does a Gunblade work? When you make it shoot, what are you shooting and where does it shoot from??”

“It doesn’t shoot. Here, watch this.” Squall scooted a safe distance away from Rinoa. “Pulling the trigger causes the blade to vibrate rapidly.” Squall said, before a loud _bang_ erupted from the Gunblade.

Rinoa watched, noticing for the first time, that the blade shook in front of her.

Before she had a chance to respond, a still half-asleep Zell burst halfway out of his tent. “Squall, what’s going on!? Are we under attack!?” He yelled, unsuccessfully attempting to yank his fingerless gloves on in his groggy state of panic.

“False alarm, Zell,” Squall said, his tone dry and uninterested.

But it wasn’t malicious, Rinoa noticed.

As much as she cared for Seifer, Rinoa knew he would never pass up the opportunity to get a few verbal jabs on somebody. An attractive quality when a Galbadian soldier would give them trouble. But less attractive when he’d do it to Zone, Watts, or anyone else she didn’t have an issue with. It was one of his personal flaws, proof that he was still a petty and imperfect human like everyone else. Kind of like how Squall needed to work on reassuring his companions.

“It was a false alarm, Zell.” Squall repeated, stirring Rinoa from her thoughts. “The client wanted a demonstration of my Gunblade. You can go back to bed.”

Zell yawned at that and rolled over back into his tent.

The absence of Zell brought a moment of silence between Rinoa and Squall. Rinoa spent the time reflecting on what Squall said to Zell. “ _The client,_ huh?” Rinoa said, finally breaking the silence. She chewed on the title like an unfamiliar word.

Squall cocked his head towards her. “Hmm? Is there a problem?”

Rinoa folded her arms, a little bothered by him playing dumb, like he didn’t know the problem. “I have a name, you know.”

“Sorry…” Squall looked down at the base of the fire. Either attempting to avoid her eye contact or genuinely contemplating his choice of words. Either way, it was enough to give Rinoa pause and think that his choice of words might not have been as deliberate as she thought.

Rinoa let out a breath and leaned back. She stared up at the stars above as she spoke. “I don’t really like being called ‘the client’. It kind of singles me out. I know I’m not a SeeD like everyone else. But I’m a part of the group now. I’m not even ‘ _the_ client’ anymore. Just ‘ _a_ client’ whose request has been put on the backburner.”

“If it wasn’t because of Galbadia threatening the Gardens, your mission would still be top priority,” Squall said.

Rinoa looked back down from the stars at what Squall had said. For a moment he even looked a little guilty, but that quickly hardened back into his usually bored stoic look once her eyes had fully settled on him again.

Rinoa covered her mouth as she gave a small laugh. “You know what? You did better that time,” she said, revealing a smile as she moved her hand away.

“Better?” Squall frowned at the statement, tilting his head as he looked at her. “Better than what?”

“You’re not very good at reassuring people. Remember the other day, when Zell was asking you what might happen to Balamb Garden? But just now, you did a lot better. Both to me and Zell. You reassured him that there weren’t any threats when your Gunblade went off, and reassured me that my contract with Garden will still be recognized.”

“All I did was just state facts.”

“Maybe, but you could also have told Zell to look out for any monsters that might’ve heard the gunshot, or you could’ve told me that Garden might need to look over and renegotiate our contract once this mission is over. I’m not saying you did it perfectly, you just did better.”

“Whatever,” Squall mumbled.

Rinoa could see that Squall was retreating from the current conversation. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to change the subject. We were talking about your Gunblade.”

Squall sat silently. Rinoa wondered if he was deliberately ignoring her or just didn’t hear her as he got lost in his thoughts again. She gave him a gentle push and brought him back to the real world.

“You still with me?” she asked, looking him over. “You’re not narcoleptic, are you? First the so-called dream-world, and now you’re getting lost in the light of the fire like you’re a moth.”

“Sorry, I was just thinking…” Squall paused, and Rinoa prepared to give him another push if he didn’t respond soon. “Thinking about what you said. Our current mission is to assassinate the Sorceress. Things could go wrong, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep everyone calm.”

Rinoa smiled sadly at him. “You worry a lot, huh? At least more than you like to let on.”

Squall hesitated on a response before eventually answering, “not really.”

Rinoa decided that was a lie, but kept it to herself. “Well, sometimes proximity is really all a person needs to feel better. Even a _blabbermouth_ like yourself should be able to do that,” she said, playfully elbowing him in the ribs.

No reaction came from Squall. But he looked deep in thought all the same. As far as Rinoa could tell, he was only responding to her in his head. But that might’ve been the wishful thinking of a girl wanting to be heard. It was frustrating to only hear one half of a conversation, doubly so when she was one of the speakers!

But then, after the long silence, Squall spoke. “So, what should I do? Next time I reassure someone I should tell them to just stay close to me?”

Rinoa chuckled at that. “A little on the nose, but sure. It gets the message across.”

“Whatever,” Squall said, his body hunching over itself again. He said the one-word response in his usual dismissive tone, but Rinoa couldn’t help thinking that her suggestion was still on his mind.

_Nobody could really be as quiet as Squall_ , she thought. Even if it was only internally, he had to be processing what was going on around him in some way.

Rinoa loudly cleared her throat, snapping Squall from his thoughts once again. “So, what’s this part called?” she asked, pointing to the hammer mechanism of the gun part of his Gunblade. It was an ungraceful way to transition back into their original topic, and she already knew what that part was, but she figured she’d offer him a way back into their old conversation. She’d given him enough to think about for one night.

“That’s the hammer. It’s creates the spark that ignites the gunpowder.”

Rinoa exaggeratedly _ahh_ -ed’ at that. “Oh, I see.”

“But you already knew that, didn’t you?”

Rinoa smirked at him. “I guess you got me.”

The corners of his lips twitched upwards. Rinoa watched, intrigued as Squall seemed to debate with himself about whether or not he was going to hide his smile again. Eventually he seemed to settle on a half smirk of his own.

“It’s getting late,” he said. “You should try to sleep. I’ll put out the fire in a little bit.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Rinoa stretched before standing up. “This time tomorrow we’ll be sleeping in Deling City, huh?”

“That’s the plan.”

“We’ve still got a long way to go, so don’t stay up too late staring into the fire, okay?”

Squall nodded. “I’ll go to sleep soon. I just need some time to think about what we talked about.”

Rinoa walked back to her tent but stopped just before she entered it. “Oh, and thanks for the talk, Squall. It helped a lot”

Squall watched as she zipped her tent closed before turning back to the fire. The security the flames once provided no longer feeling as necessary as before. Somehow Squall wondered if the talk had helped him too. The anxieties of the coming day were still there, but he felt more prepared for the day ahead.

**Author's Note:**

> About a month ago, I was talking with a friend in an FF8 discord group about what we'd like to see in a hypothetical FF8 Remake. I thought it'd be nice if it gave a few optional scenes of Squall and Rinoa talking and having a moment of seeing eye to eye early on when they still didn't quite get along. 
> 
> Since there are criticisms about how their relationship was written, even if I liked it, I think the Squall/Rinoa relationship would be improved for a lot of detractors if they had small moments of the two of them interacting positively before they became obviously romantic. One of us brought up the idea of having campsites being around the world, like in FFXV, and you could interact with characters at them. So this was basically me trying out that idea. Hopefully it came out naturally and slots into the story believably at the point in time I put it.


End file.
